Regular Employees: Usually Necessary or Desirable. An employment arrangement is not what the parties say it is, but what the law says it is. Philippine Labor Law says that a regular employee is one who performs activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual trade or business of the employer.

1. Regular Employees
Usually Necessary or Desirable
29 October 2016

2. Concept of a Regular Employee
IRR of the Labor Code: “The provisions of written agreements to the
contrary notwithstanding and regardless of the oral agreements of the
parties, employment shall be deemed regular… where the employee has
been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or
desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer…”
Citation: Sec. 5, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

3. Key Words and Phrases
The provisions of written agreements to the contrary notwithstanding
• “The employment status of a person is defined and prescribed by law and not
by what the parties say it should be.”
regardless of the oral agreements of the parties
• Even if the employer and employee agree to a fixed-term employment, labor
law can reclassify the employee as a regular if it is established that he
“performs activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual trade
or business of the employer.”
Citation: Price v. Innodata Phils. Inc., G.R. No. 178505, 30 September 2008; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

4. Case Law
Price v. Innodata Phils. Inc. (2008)
• The employees (formatters) who signed a 1-year fixed-term employment
contract filed a complaint for illegal dismissal after the period of employment
expired.
HELD: The fixed-term employees were classified as regulars.
• “… [the complainants] were employed by [the Company] as formatters. The
primary business of INNODATA is data encoding, and the formatting of the data
entered into the computers is an essential part of the process of data
encoding. Formatting organizes the data encoded, making it easier to
understand for the clients and/or the intended end users thereof. Undeniably,
the work performed by petitioners was necessary or desirable in the business
or trade of INNODATA.”
Citation: Article 97(f), Labor Code

5. Key Words and Phrases
engaged to perform activities
• “Under Article 280 of the Labor Code, the applicable test to determine
whether an employment should be considered regular or non-regular is the
reasonable connection between the particular activity performed by the
employee in relation to the usual business or trade of the employer.”
usually necessary or desirable
• “… the nature of the employment depends on the nature of the activities to be
performed by the employee, considering the nature of the employer’s
business, the duration and scope to be done, and, in some cases, even the
length of time of the performance and its continued existence."
Citation: Price v. Innodata Phils. Inc., G.R. No. 178505, 30 September 2008;
Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2014

6. Regular Seasonal Employee
Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo (2014)
• “Under Article 280 of the Labor Code, the applicable test to determine whether an
employment should be considered regular or non-regular is the reasonable
connection between the particular activity performed by the employee in relation to
the usual business or trade of the employer.”
HELD: Complainants were regular seasonal employees.
• "... the nature of the employment does not depend solely on the will or word of the
employer or on the procedure for hiring and the manner of designating the
employee. Rather, the nature of the employment depends on the nature of the
activities to be performed by the employee, considering the nature of the employer’s
business, the duration and scope to be done, and, in some cases, even the length of
time of the performance and its continued existence."
• "... the [complainants] are neither project, seasonal nor fixed-term employees, but
regular seasonal workers of URSUMCO."
Citation: Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2014

7. Regular Seasonal Employee
Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo (2014)
• “First, the respondents were made to perform various tasks that did not at all pertain to any
specific phase of URSUMCO’s strict milling operations that would ultimately cease upon
completion of a particular phase in the milling of sugar; rather, they were tasked to perform
duties regularly and habitually needed in URSUMCO’s operations during the milling season.
The respondents’ duties as loader operators, hookers, crane operators and drivers were
necessary to haul and transport the sugarcane from the plantation to the mill; laboratory
attendants, workers and laborers to mill the sugar; and welders, carpenters and utility workers
to ensure the smooth and continuous operation of the mill for the duration of the milling
season, as distinguished from the production of the sugarcane which involves the planting and
raising of the sugarcane until it ripens for milling. The production of sugarcane, it must be
emphasized, requires a different set of workers who are experienced in farm or agricultural
work. Needless to say, they perform the activities that are necessary and desirable in
sugarcane production. As in the milling of sugarcane, the plantation workers perform their
duties only during the planting season.”
Citation: Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2014

8. Regular Seasonal Employee
Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo (2014)
• “Second, the [employees] were regularly and repeatedly hired to perform the same tasks year
after year. This regular and repeated hiring of the same workers (two different sets) for two
separate seasons has put in place, principally through jurisprudence, the system of regular
seasonal employment in the sugar industry and other industries with a similar nature of
operations.”
• “Under the system, the plantation workers or the mill employees do not work continuously for
one whole year but only for the duration of the growing of the sugarcane or the milling season.
Their seasonal work, however, does not detract from considering them in regular employment
since in a litany of cases, this Court has already settled that seasonal workers who are called to
work from time to time and are temporarily laid off during the off-season are not separated
from the service in said period, but are merely considered on leave until re-employment. Be
this as it may, regular seasonal employees, like the respondents in this case, should not be
confused with the regular employees of the sugar mill such as the administrative or office
personnel who perform their tasks for the entire year regardless of the season…”
Citation: Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2014

9. Regular Seasonal Employee
Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo (2014)
• “Third, while the [the employers] assert that the [employees] were free to
work elsewhere during the off-season, the records do not support this
assertion. There is no evidence on record showing that after the completion of
their tasks at URSUMCO, the [employees] sought and obtained employment
elsewhere.”
Citation: Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2014

10. For more information:
Labor Law Compliance
Best Practices for Human Resource
www.laborlaw.ph
We value feedback.
For comments or permission to use slides, send us an email: info@jdpconsulting.ph.

11. Brought to you by:
JDP Consulting Ltd. Co.
Empowering leaders with legal compliance
We focus on Small and Medium Enterprises.
www.jdpconsulting.ph
Labor & Employment, Negotiations & Contracts,
Intellectual Property, Commercial Litigation, and Legal Compliance.

12. Seminars &
Workshops
• Join us for learning sessions on these
topics:
• HR Legal Compliance
• Labor Unions
• Company Policies
• Labor Complaints
• Outsourcing Manpower
• Disciplinary Actions
Visit: www.cpdc.ph
Venue of Seminars & Workshop:
BGC Ascott, Taguig City